The trap is baited with apple cider vinegar, sugar water and ground up banana peel. The theory they have and that I have heard elsewhere is that the beetle's are attracted to a scent given off by the excrement of the larvae with bears a remarkable similarity to he bee's alarm pheromone. Theoretically the above mixture when fermented will mimic that scent and attract the beetles to the trap.

I made my traps out of the larger size cheapo ziplock sandwhich style containers, the ones that are 2 inches high. I hot melt glued a Ni-Quill cup in the center of the trap to hold my bait. 3/16th inch holes are drilled around the top of the trap to allow the beetles inside. The trap is filled with mineral oil as it doesn't go rancid like vegetable oil and has no odor of its own.

Here is a picture of the completed trap.

Supposedly you can place these in the hive on top of the frames. You'd need a shallow box or some sort of spacer up there of course. Mine are sitting on the blocks my top bar hives legs sit on the outside of the hive.

I placed them out last night a dusk. This morning I had already trapped 1 beetle in one of the traps. Not huge I know, but we'll see what I get this afternoon.

If they appear to be working well I may build a platform under the entrance to the hive so this lure can sit right next to the entrance and possibly lure the beetles that are heading into the hive though that may not be necessary.

In one of your traps, forget the centre container for the lure. Put your apple cider vinegar in the trap container and put just enough cooking oil to cover top of the vinegar. The oil will stop the vinegar from evaporating to much but the beetles are still attracted to the vinegar and get stuck in the oil.

I tried this trap on two of my hives. I put it on top of the hives not in them. They didn't catch anything. So for me they don't work, I'll stick to AJ's beetle eater. Too bad no one in the US sells them anymore.

I've caught lots of beetles with the trap. However, it doesn't seem to have made a dent in the beetle population in the hives. In fact, as was suggested before it may actually just be acting as a lure attracting them to the hive.